Streets and Stakes:
Locations That Level Up Your Fights
15 plug-and-play locations that make your fights more cinematic and memorable. $6.99.
Want combats that feel like stories instead of math?
Are you a DM whose fights feel like empty rooms where players trade damage until someone drops?
Are you tired of describing "you swing your sword, their fireball goes boom" while the environment sits there doing nothing?
Are you a veteran DM who wants dynamic encounters but doesn't have time to design elaborate areas for every session?
Streets & Stakes gives you 15 urban combat locations designed to make every fight a scene your players will remember!
Chaos Clocks
Six-round escalation sequences that make the environment a participant, not a backdrop
Interact Options
Ten environmental actions per location with clear costs, DCs, and effects
Instant Atmosphere
Sensory details and mood variations you can use immediately at the table
What Makes These Different
Fights That Escalate
Each location includes a Chaos Clock: a six-round sequence with spicy environmental complications. Round 1 hints at danger... and Round 6 is catastrophe. Ignore it and pay the price! Engage with it and create those cool moments everyone loves.
Built for Player Agency
Every location comes with ten Interact Options: things players (or enemies) can do with the environment. Flip tables, scatter pigeons or cut ropes... Each one has consequences that will make your fights feel unique!
Story First
No stat blocks and no maps: just atmosphere, mechanics, and escalation you can drop into any campaign. The DCs assume 5e-style numbers, but the concepts can work anywhere and are easy to adapt.
What you're really getting:
Fights that feel like scenes with beginnings, middles, and ends, and go beyond hit points.
Players who engage with the environment because they see enemies doing it first.
A toolkit that helps make improvised encounters feel as dynamic as your most prepped combats.
15 locations you can mix, match, and borrow from for years!
This is for you if:
Your combats feel like white rooms where players stand still and trade damage
You want environmental hazards but don't know how to improvise them
Your players ignore the environment because nothing interesting happens when they engage with it
You want fights that feel cinematic without hours of prep
This is not for you if:
You're looking for maps (there aren't any here: these work with any map or theater of the mind)
You only run wilderness or dungeon crawls with no urban scenes
You prefer combat as pure tactical optimization with no narrative elements
You need stat blocks (this is about the environment, not the enemies)
No upsells. Just cool locations, plug and play for your next session!
Questions
Will this work with my game system? Yes! The DCs assume 5e-style target numbers, but the concepts (escalation, environmental interaction, atmosphere) work in any TTRPG and are easy to adapt.
Will these only work for specific scenarios? No. These are typical urban locations: streets, markets, taverns, warehouses etc. If your campaign has cities, these will work great!
What if I just want to learn the technique? Perfect! After reading a few locations, you'll understand how Chaos Clocks and Interact Options work, and be able to apply the same patterns to any encounter you design.
Can I use pieces instead of whole locations? Absolutely! Take just a specific Chaos Clock for a location you already described and mix it with the Interact Options of another one for a fight you're improvising. Mix and match freely.
How big is this? Streets & Stakes includes 15 complete locations, each with atmosphere variations, sensory details, a Chaos Clock, ten Interact Options, and nine Further Complications. The PDF is 34 pages long!
Get "Streets And Stakes" now for $6.99
© Edariad. All rights reserved.
This work includes material from the System Reference Document 5.2 (“SRD 5.2”) by Wizards of the Coast LLC, available at https://www.dndbeyond.com/srd. The SRD 5.2 is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode.